Theflyonethewall.com urges US court to lift ban on "hot news"

Last month, the US District Judge Denise Cote had ruled that the website should wait two or more hours before publishing research from Bank of America's Merrill Lynch unit, Barclays and Morgan Stanley.

Cote said the company is engaged in "systematic misappropriation" and got an improper "free ride" in quickly publishing the views of analyst's at the three banks.

The firm's president, Ron Etergino, said this endangers the future of the website. He said the delay order gives its rival a competitive advantage and harm its own interests.

It sought an alternative by asking for permission to report research first published by one of six mainstream news services such as Bloomberg LP, CNBC television, Dow Jones Newswires, the New York Times, Thomson Reuters and the Wall Street Journal.